Quotes from Paulo Coelho

MySpace is an addiction.

Culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers. But first they have to understand that their neighbour is, in the end, just like them, with the same problems, the same questions.

You're always learning. The problem is, sometimes you stop and think you understand the world. This is not correct. The world is always moving. You never reach the point you can stop making an effort.

When I asked you if you wanted to, I was not testing your courage. I was testing your wisdom.

Don't close your eyes to the Universe and then complain: 'It's dark.

Love will never separate a man from his personal legend.

By changing the way you do routine things you allow a new man to grow inside you.

Since the dawn of time man understands that suffering, faced with no fear, is his passport to freedom.

Assuming that women don't like football and that men aren't intersted in home decorating and cooking.

People who are different are dangerous; they belong to another tribe; they want our lands and our women.

She didn't struggle and so she didn't grow

I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death. They thought nobody can make a living from being a writer in Brazil. They were not wrong.

I have been practicing archery for a long time; a bow and arrow helps me to unwind.

the reward of our work is not what we get, but what we become

Every person on the face of the earth has a gift. In some this reveals itself spontaneously, others have to work to find it.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

I don't believe in you, God, but please, help me.

Teaching is demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.

Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act.

"When you're in love, you're capable of learning everything and knowing things you had never dared even to think, because love is the key to understanding of all the the mysteries."

The same goes for envy, anger and insults - said the master. - When they are not accepted, they continue to belong to the one who carried them.

About the idea of a clash between cultures, between civilisations, I don't believe in it. It's something some political leaders tried to use, and that the media tried and are still trying to sell us, in order to simplify the world and their work.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the master work. Now, I'm beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I'm happy at least that I didn't wait twenty years.